Fat Girl FAT... a weekend of warm puddings

This past weekend was rather chilly which put me in the unfortunate position where I felt the need to produce warm puddings all weekend.  Needless to say the scales are not my friend this morning, but I'm hoping that if I am very good for the next 48 hours I'll be able to reverse the damage.  Fingers crossed.

These puddings are not the prettiest puddings in the world, but they do taste good.  They all required very little effort and use ingredients that are generally found at home, so I was able to impress the family with ready steady cook.

Friday night : Lemon Pudding
Saturday night : Chocolate Pear Pudding
Sunday: Milk Tart



Friday night:  Lemon Pudding
A light lemony saucy sponge type pudding

Ingredients
55g butter
115g sugar
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
2 eggs separated
55g self-raising flour
285ml milk

Method
Soften the butter slightly in the microwave.  Using a cake mixer, cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl before adding the lemon rind and juice, egg yolks, flour and milk and folding together until mixed.

In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff.  Fold into the pudding mixture gently before pouring into an ovenproof pudding type dish.  Place pudding dish into a roasting tin, and pour a kettle of boiled water into the roasting tin to surround the pudding dish.

Bake at 200 for 45 minutes.



Saturday night:  Chocolate Pear PuddingA chocolate sponged topped pear affair

Ingredients
1 can pears drained
60g flour
15g cocoa powder
60g castor sugar
75g butter
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place the pears in a small round oven proof dish.  The pears should fill the dish.  The one I use is the size of a side plate.

Mix the remaining ingredients together using a cake mixer.  Spread over the pears.

Bake at 200 for 30 minutes. 

I served this pudding with some chocolate sauce out of a bottle, but you could serve it with ice-cream or cream or all of the above.



Sunday night:  Milk Tart
A South African light custart tart topped with cinnamon

I am not going to share this milk tart recipe as I don't believe it tastes authentic.  Milk Tart is a traditional South African custard tart that is topped with a sprinkling of cinnamon.  This tasted good, but not as good as it could.  So I will redo the milk tart in the near future and share the best recipe I can find.

Banana Muffins - 2 Weight Watchers Pro Points each

Now muffins are a weakness of mine, but when looking up the pro points value on weight watchers, I realised some of them contained up to 15 pro points!  That's approximately half your daily allowance.  I was horrified and stopped eating muffins at once until I discovered this recipe where each muffin contains 2 pro points.   So you can enjoy a muffin with your cup of tea without having to worry about that moment on the lips.

Low Points Banana Muffins

Ingredients
30g butter
60g honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 ripe bananas
150g plain flour
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
12 cup muffin pan lined with muffin cases
Chocolate chips for sprinkling on top

Method
Melt the butter, honey and vanilla in the microwave. 
Mash the bananas in a bowl and pour over the honey butter vanilla mix and combine.
Mix the dry ingredients in another mixing bowl.
Mix the bananas mix into the dry ingredients until just combined(don't overmix)
Divide the muffin mix equally amongst the muffin cases.
Top with chocolate chips

Bake for 25 minutes on 190 degrees

Bella Biscotti

I love biscotti especially with a cup of real coffee or accompanying a chocolate mousse. This recipe is so easy, and is much tastier than the variety you get in coffee shops. I have included milk chocolate in this instance as I am baking them for children, but you can add different flavour chocolates like dark, or white, you can roll the biscotti mix in the kneading stage in a tablespoon of instant espresso powder for a coffee flavour, or add nuts like almonds.

Biscotti

1 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup of castor sugar
60g butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
250g slab milk chocolate

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Mix the flour, baking powder and castor sugar
Cut in the melted butter
Beat the eggs and vanilla
Add to the flour butter mix to make a dough
Sprinkle flour on clean work surface
Knead the dough lightly before flattening dough on surface an inch thick
Chop the chocolate in 1cm square pieces and push into flattened dough
Roll the dough into a sausage shape approx 30cm long
Place on greased pan and flatten with the back of a spoon
Sprinkle top with castor sugar and bake for 30 minutes
Cut log into slices 1cm thick
Place slices on a greased baking sheet and bake for another 5 minutes
Allow to cool before indulging in one or two or the whole lot